by Pixie Unger
“So when you suggested hiking…” Sarah said hesitantly.
Craig shook his head. “No! Marv thought that. I can still enjoy time with you. This is only one part of me, it doesn’t define everything about me. Marv doesn’t get that. He sees me as broken.”
Sarah swallowed and nodded. “Now that I know, what do you want me to do?”
Craig was quiet for a long moment. “I’m still the same person. It’s just now you know a little more about me. About my history. I like our relationship. I don’t want that to change. I wouldn’t do anything to change that. I… I wouldn’t have said anything if Marv hadn’t insisted.”
Sarah thought about that. “I’m going to need some time to process all of that.”
“Is this where Gus and I trade places?”
“... No… But this is where we put on the radio and I have a bit of time to think. I will have questions, once I figure out what to ask.”
“OK.”
----
“Craig, how many people have you run down and raped?”
“Three. If it helps, we never attacked settlements. It was only invaders or attackers that were… anyway. Not in hundreds of years.”
Gus commented on that, “It isn’t just him. My last alpha would use rape and feeding as a weapon against the people in his territory. He would use us. It became a weapon against us as well.”
“That’s why we are all so happy to have Marv.” Craig added. “Most alphas aren’t as bad as the ones we had before. But most of them aren’t as laid back as Marv is either.”
“Oh.” Sarah thought for a moment. “I knew Mac’s last alpha wasn’t… nice. But I didn’t know that.”
“Fairly solid Luper tradition says that we were made to kill monsters trying to take over the world. The kind of person who can stop an invading army that looks like lost children isn’t always going to be a nice person.” Craig said softly. “Or at least not stay a nice person.”
“An army of children?”
“Yes. Or that bunny you killed. Elves are often beautiful or adorable, but they are always predators.”
Sarah snorted, “You make it sound like the monster from an Arnie movie.”
“That would have been much more accurate if the thing hunting and killing those soldiers looked like a three year old girl.”
“Oh come on!”
“Not a joke. There is a reason fairies are often represented as tubby toddlers. People remember the cute factor and forget that they would take children out of their cribs and leave a changeling instead.”
“That’s just a story!” Gus was watching her. Craig was keeping his eyes on the road. “Isn’t it?” she added cautiously.
Gus held eye contact and shook his head, no.
Sarah needed to stop talking again after that.
Chapter 28
Sarah was standing clear as the boys used a complicated series of winches and straps to hide the fact that it was mostly brute werewolf strength loading the wrecks onto the flat deck. The elderly wife of the man selling the cars was standing next to her admiring the view.
“The scrap metal business always was, well, a business,” she explained. “All the old cars, well, that was more like Guy’s hoard. But we are getting older now and I told him that if he doesn’t sell them to people who want to rebuild them now, they will end up as scrap after he dies. He didn’t like that very much.”
Sarah just nodded.
Guy was “helping” but mostly in the way. Finally, he gave up and huffed over to where the women were watching. “You are lucky to have so many strong boyfriends,” he leered.
Marie was shocked. “That was a horrible thing to say! They aren’t her ‘boyfriends’ , they are the men from the garage she hired to build the car for her!”
There was so much wrong with both of Marie’s statements, Sarah didn’t even know where to begin. She settled on just nodding noncommittally.
Loading the cars took longer than Sarah would have expected. Gus grumbled that it would have gone faster without the witnesses, and especially without Guy’s help. They stopped at the first truck stop they came to so the boys could have a shower and eat.
Sarah wished she would have worn her shop overalls. She was attracting attention in the trucker’s lounge as the boys were in scrubbing up. No one said anything, but they were definitely staring at her. Finally, she got uncomfortable enough to go wait in the restaurant. When she got up to leave, a Luper that wasn’t her Luper came out of one of the shower rooms.
“Hello. What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for my boys.” Sarah felt a little nervous but didn’t want to back down.
The Luper nodded and glared over her shoulder for a moment. Suddenly the lounge cleared out. “I’m Earl,” he said after a moment.
“Sarah of Bellmont.” It felt odd introducing herself like that, but Nicole had insisted it was how it was done. Earl nodded and subtly shifted his weight away from her.
“You happy your boys left you alone out here?”
Sarah’s instincts started screaming at her. This was a significant question. “I am happy with my boys,” she offered carefully, hoping that was the right answer.
Earl laughed, “OK, OK, fair enough. I’m on my own, you can’t fault a lone wolf for looking for a pack, right?”
Sarah shrugged. She had no idea how that worked, but didn’t want to admit that.
Craig stepped out of the shower room and immediately started to growl, low and under his breath at Earl.
Earl took an extra step back and lowered his gaze respectfully. “You have a good rest of your journey, Sarah of Bellmont.” And with that, he left.
Craig kept his eyes locked on Earl’s back until he was out of the door. Then he turned to Sarah, “What was that about?”
She immediately bristled, “I am allowed to talk to people you know!”
Craig blinked and forced himself to relax. Gus came out and hurried over to them, “What the hell is going on? Who’s the other Luper?”
“I was just trying to find that out,” Craig said carefully. “But I asked the question the wrong way, it seems.”
Sarah took a deep breath and tried to relax. “The humies were staring. He came over and made them stop. I hate that I needed him to, but it was helpful.”
Gus and Craig shared a look then Gus hugged her tightly and rubbed her back. “Come on, lass, let’s go eat.”
----
By the time they made the border crossing at Trout River, it was quite late. As a 24 hour crossing, there was still a line to get across, but it wasn’t long. Sarah was asleep when they finally made it to the head of the line. The border official took their passports, then ordered them out of the truck.
“The sniffer dogs are very interested in your vehicle.”
They were all separated into individual interrogation rooms. Sarah was worried about the accuracy of her new passport. She was expecting to have to answer questions about why they were hauling junker cars across the border. Or why the drug dogs were so keen on her and her boys. She was not prepared for what happened when the female guard came in and sat down.
“Are you being transported under duress, Ms Black?”
Sarah blinked. “What?”
“The men you are traveling with. Are you travelling with them willingly?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“What is your relationship with them?”
“We are co-workers. We all work at the same garage.”
“You all have the same address in your passports.”
“Yes? Bellmont isn’t that big. We all share a house.”
“So you all work together and live in the same house?”
Sarah sighed. “Look, in logging camps, right? They have trailers or whatever set up and all the loggers stay in the same camp, right? Marv builds custom motorcycles. He needs a trained crew. There isn’t exactly a booming rental market in Bellmont. It makes sense to just have a big house and provide room and board for
your employees.”
“And what, exactly do you do for Marv’s Motors?”
“Ordering, inventory, oil changes, sometimes I drive the shuttle.”
“Anything else?”
“Why don’t you ask me what you are actually asking me so that I can answer.”
“Are you being trafficked for sexual purposes?”
“No!”
“So you aren’t kept in Bellmont for -”
“I’m not being kept anywhere! Except here by you. I am an American citizen. I want to talk to my lawyer!”
“Why do you need a lawyer, Ms Black?”
“You seem to be asking if I am breaking prostitution laws -”
The border official held up her hands. “Actually, Ms Black, I am concerned your co-workers are breaking human trafficking laws.”
“Well, they aren’t!”
There was a knock on the door. The border guard that came in was a Luper. Sarah glared at him. He ignored her. “Officer Reily, Ms Black asked for her lawyer. I think we should arrange that.” He handed her a phone. “I have Nathan Dai on the line for you.”
Sarah took the phone and looked at the two guards. “Do I get a moment alone to take the call?”
“You won’t need it.” The Luper insisted.
“Hello?”
“Sarah, there has been an incident in Bellmont. Everyone is fine, but Marv needs Gus and Craig back home. You need to be somewhere safe. The Luper who gave you the phone is Jerry. He will keep you safe until -”
Sarah hung up. She looked up at Jerry. “Let me know when we are done here.” Then she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.
“Your co-workers are leaving without you.”
“Not willingly. My being separated from them is on you, Jerry!”
“I’m just following orders, ma’am.”
Sarah continued to glare at him.
The female border official looked between them. “Do you know Officer Cherna, Ms. Black?”
Sarah didn’t blink or shift her gaze from Jerry. “Why don’t you ask him? Ask him why he feels the need to strand me here without my ride home.”
The next bit was interesting. Sarah and Jerry had locked gazes with neither of them willing to blink. Sarah was radiating so much righteous indignation mixed with maleovant rage that even the humie noticed.
Jerry started to growl.
The other officer grabbed him and hustled him out of the interrogation room. Once the door closed, she turned on him, “What the hell, Jer? We have no reason to hold her that I know of, what aren’t you telling me?"
Jerry took a deep breath and blew it out as his mind raced. If he made any too specific accusations about the Bellmont boys, Nathan was going to be pissed when he had to build them all new identities. On the other hand, he had been specifically told to hold the Bellmont Ulfurinn for 48 hours. This was problematic for a number of reasons. It wasn’t really in keeping with the Black Treaty and he knew it. Worse, she knew it. Also, he had to come up with a reason for his co-workers and “a high ranking werewolf ordered me to” wasn’t going to fly.
“I just have a really bad feeling about this one, Katherine.” That at least was true. Whatever Nathan had said to the other two, he had been able to persuade them to leave. Where it fell apart was that he had not been able to convince the Ulfurinn to stay.
This was going to be a problem.
Chapter 29
December 2nd
It was shortly after 3am by the time Sarah got out of the customs office. The boys were long gone. Jerry offered to put her up in his pack’s residence. She had offered to cut his heart out with a spoon.
They agreed to disagree.
She found a pay phone and called the head office intending to give Nathan A Piece of Her Mind™ and Un-invite Him From Christmas Dinner. Now this was an extreme measure in Sarah’s book, the evalent of ‘Nuke ‘em from orbit.’ But, she told herself, it needed to be done. Separating her from her boys and leaving her stranded in the middle of nowhere was completely unacceptable.
The phone rang.
Someone answered.
“Hello?”
Sarah went straight forward with white hot rage, “Listen, you piece of shit, I don’t care who you are, you have no right separating me from my family and expecting me to shack up with strangers!”
“Ma’am? I’m afraid I’m not sure what you are talking about.”
Sarah took a deep breath and blew it out and tried again. In a calmer voice, she asked, “May I speak with Nathan, please?”
The man on the phone laughed. “Well, that explains pretty much everything! Who is this?”
She managed to get out, “Sarah from Bellmon-” before she was cut off.
“Ah! I am terribly sorry, Ms Bellmont, but I am afraid you must remain where you are for the time being. There has been an attack on your town and your Alpha contacted the Head Office specifically to request that we see to your safety.”
“Yeah. That sounds like Marv. Who is this?”
“My name is Michael. We have arranged for you to stay with the local pack until things are back under control. Several of the surrounding packs have been deployed to ensure that is as soon as possible.”
“Did he say what sort of attack?”
“The notes aren’t exactly clear. It says that it is venomous, carnivorous rabbits, but -”
“Oh crap.” Sarah swore and immediately began to worry about Molly. She was fairly confident the boys could take care of themselves.
“Indeed. It sounds like they got into the local school. Several children have been transferred to Plattsville in comas. The CDC has been dispatched to investigate. Nathan and our medical team are en route to prevent them from interfering in the hunt.”
Sarah thought about that for a moment. “Have they closed the highway?”
There was a long moment of silence. “Why would you ask that?”
Sarah sighed and grumbled, “I need to know if I can hitchhike home or if I’m better off cutting through the forest. I might not be able to change, but Nicole says I can run a marathon in under two hours.”
“Don’t do that.” Michael said firmly.
“My pack. My territory. My family.” Sarah thought for a moment, then quoted the Black treaty, “I will not turn away.”
Michael muttered under his breath, “Zounderkite.”
“What was that?” Sarah asked. “I don’t understand.”
She could almost hear Michael gritting his teeth. “Your alpha specifically said we needed to intervene to keep you contained because you were too stubborn and fool headed to listen to reason and choose your own safety.”
Sarah grinned, “Huh. Sounds like Marv has been paying attention after all.”
“Are you determined to be a gnashnab, or is there any way I can talk you into staying put? We would be more than happy to get you a hotel room -”
“In Trout River? This place is a border crossing! There isn’t much else.”
“Would you at least wait long enough for me to find you safe transport?”
“Michael. I am standing in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, freezing my ear off at a payphone because this place is so small, I don’t even have cell service. Who are you going to find to drive me home?”
----
It pissed Marv off that the Plattsville pack was hunting in his territory. Mostly he wanted to gut Robert for breaking Sarah’s hand with his face last month. But instead, he was having to suffer the humiliation of having outsiders hunting his prey on his land. It was enough to make him spit.
Even worse was that he needed the help. There were just too many of them. Their venom made the Lupers itchy, but it knocked Humies unconscious. It acted fast and the little bastards were carnivorous. So far the medical team was trying to pass the wounds off as infectious boils, but Marv knew at least two of the town folk had bled out as the bunnies feasted.
As near as anyone could figure, that was how they worked. The kids found a clutch o
f cute little bunnies in the playground and took them home. Once everyone was asleep, they attacked. So far the lupers had killed more than a hundred of the fluffy little serial killers and they were still finding new tracks in the woods. The invasion had to stop here. Total bunny extinction. There was no way they could let any escape to become a new invasive species.
He could hear Craig laughing in the distance. Apparently, their resident antique had seen this before. He was having fun, could you imagine! He had called it “a marathon all you can eat buffet.” Ok, so he had a point, they were tasty little guys, but this was NOT Marv’s idea of a good time.
He snapped at the one he was chasing. The poison bunnies were almost faster than the Lupers, so they were having to hunt by setting traps. Marv was currently herding this one towards Sean, who leapt out of the tree he had been up and caught the thing with a satisfying crunch. Marv skidded to a stop, panting heavily.
Sean gave him a doggy grin, “Slowing down old man?” he teased.
“Next time,” Marv gasped, “you can run and I’ll sit on my ass in a fucking tree.”
Sean howled with laughter.
----
Earl was parked just across the border. It was ridiculous, but he had to follow the transport regulations for truck drivers and that included documented hours of rest. He only needed four, maybe six hours of sleep in a day, but spending time in his berth was required to blend in.
He was currently playing Clash of Clans on his phone.
Under normal circumstances, he would park somewhere in the middle of nowhere and go for a run. But he had been delayed crossing the border and now he was stuck in another pack’s territory and it would be just plain rude to run around scenting their space.
His phone rang. It was the Vancouver Haven number.
“Hello?” he asked hesitantly.
“It’s Mick. We have a job for you. We need you to transport an Ulfurinn.”
“Yes, sir!”
The voice on the other end of the phone sighed. “No. We need you to transport her slowly. She will likely be incredibly pissed off at you by the end of this.”
